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The rise of Boris Johnson, the UK's new controversial prime minister who was fired from multiple jobs

Jul 24, 2019, 03:16 IST

Following is a transcript of the video.

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Boris Johnson will be the UK's next prime minister. Known as "BoJo" among his supporters, he's one of the UK's most recognizable politicians. He's a charismatic, and sometimes controversial figure.

The life and career of Boris Johnson

He attended the elite boarding school Eton College with David Cameron. He studied classical literature, history, and philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford University, and was president of the Oxford Union in 1986.

Boris had a brief career at The Times before getting fired for making up a quote. Politics and journalism run in his family. His brother, Jo Johnson, is also a Conservative politician and former bureau chief at the Financial Times.

Boris was elected as a Member of Parliament in 2001. He was embroiled in a scandal during his early years as a politician and editor. After publishing an article suggesting the city of Liverpool reveled in a "victim status."

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In 2004, Boris lied about having an affair and was fired from his position as Shadow Minister of the Arts. In 2008, he resigned as an MP and was elected as the Mayor of London.

During this time, he gained quite a reputation. London's bike-share service unofficially bears his name. They're known as "Boris Bikes." He rode a bike with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In 2012, Boris got stuck on a zipline while promoting the Olympics and made international headlines. He was re-elected as Mayor that same year.

Despite the repeated gaffes, many people warmed to Boris. Though some incidents come off as clownish, his supporters believe they make him more authentic and relatable than many politicians. But critics called him an inactive mayor, using the position to boost his personal publicity.

When things heated up during the Brexit debate in 2016, Boris said Britain had a "great, great future" outside of the European Union. When US President Barack Obama encouraged Britain to stay in the EU, Boris called him a "part-Kenyan" with hypocritical views.

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After Britain voted to leave the EU and Cameron resigned. Boris was favored to become the next Prime Minister, but he declared that he would not enter the race.

"My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive."

When Theresa May became Prime Minister, she appointed Johnson as Foreign Secretary. In his new role, he visited many EU countries he previously condemned. And worked to convince the world Brexit wouldn't mean the UK was walling itself from the world.

He resigned as Foreign Secretary in July 2018 in a rebuke of May's stance on Brexit. Johnson continued to fight for Brexit. In May 2019, Theresa May announced her resignation after Parliament repeatedly rejected her Brexit deal.

Johnson and Jeremy Hunt were the final candidates to replace her. People doubted Johnson would be the frontrunner, but he received 64% of the vote.

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Johnson's campaign slogan was "Deliver, Unite, Defeat." He realized it had an unfortunate acronym, so he added an "E" at the end for "energize".

"Dude, we are going to energize the country, we are going to get Brexit done!"

Adam Bienkov, Caroline Simon, and John Haltiwanger contributed to this video.

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